Re the article “SES slam crossing of weir flood waters” (Leader, March 22).
It’s dangerous to drive through deep, fast-flowing water. A lot of locals feel they know the road, and in the past (before barricades etc) people often drove through water a couple of inches deep, depending on their experience and what their cars could manage.
But deep water as in that photo - crazy. And most locals will vehemently agree.
Now we have Live Traffic and access to the camera overlooking the weir, it’s easier and safer to drive around when the road is obviously flooded.
It’s easy now to know, instead of finding out the hard way after a 20 minute drive, that the road is impassable.
The problem we have now - the barricades that go across the road are often delayed by hours.
The Live Traffic app is similarly often hours out of date. And even when the camera shows the road is dry, there can be up to 8 hours’ delay before the road is re-opened.
Drivers who go around the barricades to cross a DRY ROAD will still get booked for “driving contrary to a sign”.
As a result, a system designed to keep people safe is training people to disrespect it. The long delays in opening the road seem to be due to a private contractor, apparently based in Rockdale.
So all the wonders and speed of modern technology are being undermined and reversed by these delays.
We have much longer delays now, in the road being re-opened when it is dry, than we ever did when the police or RMS managed it more directly and without the benefit of automatic signage.
Let’s go back to how it used to be - let RMS respond far more promptly so people can drive on the safer road through Audley when it is dry, and have the system more promptly display appropriate warning levels.
Magreth